


Hypnosis Lessons

by murderousfiligree



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 02:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15160304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murderousfiligree/pseuds/murderousfiligree
Summary: His gaze shifted back to her and settled there. “What do you think, Scully? Why would ten people walk into a lake and never come up for air?”





	Hypnosis Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt from a friend: "A local lake is drained after a worrisome event affects the town." 
> 
> May add more drabbles later if I am so inclined. Still working through The X-Files on Netflix.

The boat lay with its hull half-buried in mud. She supposed it was technically a yacht, but it lacked the luxury the name typically evokes; one of the cabin windows was badly cracked and the white body was imbrued with dirt. Its bow rose from the lakebed to the level of the dock where a man in a black wool coat stood with his back to her. A gust of wind ran its fingers through his short-cropped brown hair.

“Mulder,” she called.

The man turned around. He smiled at her in the slow, thoughtful way which she knew meant his mind was somewhere else—chasing whatever was terrorizing this little town.

“I talked to the mayor,” she said. “He’s agreed to a second autopsy, though I’m still not sure what you expect me to find.”

Mulder looked out over the lake, watching the shore recede toward the distant dam. It would be another day or two before the draining was finished.

“Mulder?” she prompted.

His gaze shifted back to her and settled there. “What do you think, Scully? Why would ten people walk into a lake and never come up for air?”

The corner of her mouth quirked in a lopsided smile. “Maybe they were dragged by the creature from the black lagoon? Eaten by the Loch Ness monster?”

“Scully, I thought better of you. Nessie is a Scottish beast.” He stretched his arms up to the blue New England sky. “This is Salem, Connecticut. Nary a Nessie in sight.”

For a moment, her smile broke into a full grin; it faded as her gaze fell to the lakebed, where a dead fish considered her with rheumy eyes. “What do you expect to find at the bottom of this lake, Mulder? There are no bite marks or signs of struggle in any of the autopsy reports.”

“Maybe the creature from the black lagoon and the town pathologist are in cahootz.”

Scully raised her eyebrows but did not indulge him with a response. Mulder sighed.

“When his wife tried to walk into the lake the first time, the mayor said she was dazed. She wouldn’t respond to his calls, and he had to physically restrain her. It was like she was under some kind of spell.”

“A dissociative episode?”

“Maybe.” Mulder stepped off the dock, resting his foot on the stern of the yacht. “But why would ten people in less than two months have a dissociative episode in the same place? All of them walking into this lake within two miles of each other?”

Scully shifted her weight to one leg, the dock creaking under the point of her heel. “You think something is hypnotizing these people? Forcing them to walk into the lake?”

“Don’t sound so skeptical, Scully. You’ve experienced it yourself.”

Her hand slipped to the back of her neck almost absently. For a dizzying moment, the night on the bridge breached the surface of her mind—the memory, though recovered with the aid of hypnosis, still held the surreal quality of a dream.

“Scully?”

“I’m fine.” She withdrew her hand from her neck with some difficulty. “You want me to look for implants. Like mine.”

“I want you to look for anything unusual.” Mulder’s gaze returned to the lake. “But I think what’s out there is a homing device, like the one that drew you to that bridge. A gift from our friends in the military. Unless...”

“Unless?”

Mulder jumped back onto the dock, grinning like a schoolboy. “Nessie’s been taking hypnosis lessons.”


End file.
